The school of administration and information management (AIM) may be eliminated next September if a committee proposal to consolidate the school with a business program is approved.
The idea to merge AIM and the business information systems (BIS) major, to create a new school called Information Technology Management (ITM), was developed by a committee struck by Ryerson’s v.p. academic Dennis Mock last January to examine the overlaps between the two programs.
The committee, which includes three professors from both AIM and BIS, concluded consolidating the programs would give students better training and make them more marketable after graduation.
“In the process of looking at the course difference it became apparent the objectives of the two schools were very similar, and that it would be beneficial to merge the two and create a program that is stronger than each individual program is now,” said committee member and BIS professor Ray Moss.
A committee report to the two schools outlining the proposed curriculum for ITM encourages expedience, because in the Toronto-area, “there are no university programs with a substantial component of information technology combined with business other than at Ryerson.”
AIM reviewed the proposal at their curriculum meeting. The school of business management will discuss the report at their meeting next Wednesday.
The proposal will then go before each school’s council. If approved there, it would move to the academic council’s standards committee and then to academic council. The final stage will be Ryerson’s board of governors.
The committee hopes to start offering the Bachelor of Commerce in ITM as early as next September. Students in the midst of completing their AIM or BIS degree would have the option to stay in their program or transfer.
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